Abstract

Magnum Photos is a legendary photographers’ cooperative, which produced iconic pictures and helped define and promote the profession of photojournalist. This paper interrogates the agency’s contribution to the history of post-war photojournalism during its first years (1947–1960), focusing on “distributions,” sets of pictures with accompanying texts and captions that were circulated internationally to magazines and partnering agencies. Distributions renewed the tradition of the photo-essay and inspired generations of Magnum photographers. In Magnum’s myth, they have been presented as a revolutionary invention that enabled photographers to secure complete control over their work, embodying the cooperative’s ideals of freedom and independence. This paper argues that distributions played indeed such a role, but indirectly, as a process rather than a result: they were in fact a stepping stone that helped Magnum members to support their personal work. This study demonstrates how, during the agency’s first years, distributions represented a compromise between the photographers’ visions and the needs of the market. Distributions thus form one specific instance of the famous nexus between words and pictures, and art and journalism.

摘要

玛格南图片社是一家传奇的摄影师合作社，它制作了具有标志性的图片，并帮助定义和促进了摄影记者的职业。本文探讨了该机构在战后第一年（1947-1960年）对新闻摄影历史的贡献，重点是“发行”，带有附带文字和标题的图片集，并在国际范围内分发给杂志和合作伙伴。发行更新了摄影文章的传统，并激发了万能摄影师的后代。在玛格南（Magnum）的神话中，它们被视为一项革命性的发明，使摄影师能够确保对其作品的完全控制，体现了合作社的自由和独立理想。本文认为分发确实起到了这样的作用，但间接地，作为一个过程而不是一个结果：实际上，它们是帮助Magnum成员支持其个人工作的垫脚石。这项研究表明，在摄影社成立的头几年中，发行影片是如何在摄影师的视野和市场需求之间做出折衷的。因此，分布构成了单词与图片，艺术与新闻之间著名的联系的一种具体实例。